S62- , FRANCE. 



ambitious naturally became his enemies; and the king appears not to 

 have possessed sufficient firmness of mind to support an upright and 

 able minister. He was therefore displaced, and is said to have been 

 particularly opposed by the queen's party. 



The dismemberment of the British empire had been the grand ob- 

 ject of France ; and the independence of the United States having 

 been acknowledged in the fullest and most express terms by Great 

 Britain, the preliminary articles of peace were signed at Paris on the 

 20th of January, 1783 ; but the immense expenses incurred were 

 found at last to be much more than the revenues of the kingdom* 

 could by any means support ; and the miserable exigencies to which 

 government was reduced contributed to increase the public discon- 

 tents. These, with the popular sentiments of Liberty which the 

 French army imbibed in America, and carried home with them, pre- 

 pared the way for the late disastrous revolution. 



The ambition of the French government made its subjects ac- 

 quainted with liberty 5 by assisting the insurgents in America and 

 Holland ; and excited a spirit among the people, which could not 

 well admit of the continuance of arbitrary power at home. Mr. 

 Necker having been dismissed from the direction of public affairs, 

 and succeeding ministers being endowed neither with his integrity 

 nor abilities, the finances of the nation were on the point of being 

 nearly ruined. When the edict for registering the loan at the con- 

 clusion of 1785, which amounted to the sum of three millions three 

 hundred and thirty thousand pounds, was presented to the parliament 

 of Paris, the murmurs of the people, and the remonstrances of that 

 assembly, assumed a more legal and formidable appearance. The 

 king, however, signified to the select deputations that were commis- 

 sioned to convey to him their remonstrances, that he expected to be 

 obeyed without farther delay. The ceremony of registering took 

 place on the next day, but was accompanied with a resolution, im- 

 porting, that public economy was the only genuine source of abun- 

 dant revenue, the only means of providing for the necessity of the 

 state, and restoring that credit which borrowing had reduced to the 

 brink of ruin. 



This proceeding was no sooner known, than the king required the 

 attendance of the grand deputation of parliament ; he erased from 

 their records the resolution that had been adopted ; and declared him- 

 self satisfied with the/conduct of monsieur de Calonne, his comptral- 

 ler-general. 



However gratified by the support of his sovereign, monsieur de 

 Calonne could not fail of feeling himself deeply mortified by the op- 

 position of the parliament. An anxious inquiry into the state of the 

 public finances ha'd convinced him that the expenditure had far ex- 

 ceeded the revenues ; in the present situation, to impose new taxes 

 was impossible, to continue the method of borrowing was ruinous, 

 and to have recourse only to economical reforms would be found 

 wholly inadequate ; and he hesitated not to declare, that it would be 

 impossible to place the finances on a solid basis, but by the informa- 

 tion of whatever was vicious in the constitution of the state. To give 

 weight to this reform, the minister was sensible that something more 

 was necessary than royal authority ; he perceived that the parliament 

 was neither a fit instrument for introducing a new order into public 

 affairs, nor would submit to be a passive machine for sanctioning the 

 plans of a minister, even if those plans were the emanations of per= 

 feet wisdom. 



